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Heads Will Roll – Offensive Coordinators Meet the Turk

In the past week, the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Buffalo Bills have all fired their offensive coordinators.

The Bills have been outscored 31-0 in the first quarter of five preseason games, and quarterback Trent Edwards has averaged 4.97 yards a pass attempt.

The Bills’ first-string offense failed to score a touchdown in 15 possessions over five preseason games, according to The Buffalo News.

In Kansas City, Chan Gailey (former offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos (under Dan Reeves in the early 1990’s), Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys) was relieved of his duties by head coach, and former Cardinal offensive coordinator Todd Haley.

In Tampa, the Bucs decided to part ways with riverboat gambler Jeff Jagodzinski. Jags, you may recall, was fired by Boston College after his solicitation of the head job of the New York Jets. BC told Jags that if he interviewed with the Jets, he’d be fired. He called their bluff and was canned. The Jets chose Baltimore’s Rex Ryan and now Jags is history — again.

Given that Alex Van Pelt will be taking over in Buffalo, I think the Bills offense may closely resemble that of the Atlanta Falcons (run by former Steeler coordinator and Bill coach Mike Mularkey). Van Pelt is a young guy who may be able to relate a bit better than Boomer Esiason’s old backup – Turk Shonert. Edwards and Schonert share a Stanford University pedigree, but not much else. I’ve always thought Edwards was a capable player. He’s not a great talent, but he is able to get the deep ball out on time and accurately to Lee Evans. Evans has been double covered for most of his career precisely because #2 receivers like Peerless Price, Josh Reed and others have failed to emerge as Houshmandzadeh-esque complements to his talent. The arrival of Terrell Owens suggest that the Bills should be as explosive as Edwards is healthy.

The Bills, Bucs and Chiefs significantly underperformed last year. Only Bills head coach Dick Jauron was in place last year. Raheem Morris and Todd Haley will have a short grace period in their new positions. Each team, however, will need to produce on offense if these coaches are to survive the next purge at the top.

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